Feb 24, 2006

Our freshly hand-picked free games selection

This "collage", featuring screenshots from the games I'll soon be leading you to, is a testimony to my total lack of artistic skill. The only thing, that would actually help me persuade DADA revolutionaries to spare my life, is that through this (rather horrid) collage, I, too, am -even without consciously pursuing it- bringing western art closer to its collapse. Such an argument would definitely not help, in the event of encountering any other militant (or not) artist group. The surrealist would shoot me, and so would Andy Warhol.

(Still. You can consider it sabotage comrades! DADA!)

For the rest of you people, who care not for art (or Art), who don't really understand what I'm talking about, things will immediately get a lot simpler: Free Gamezzz! Downloadz! Yeah!!! Al nite !!11!! Kewll! (Free legal game downloads for the literate among you)

All of the games presented here(and obviously linked to), were carefully and lovingly hand picked. They are a 100% biological products and have been intensively tested to guarantee your satisfaction. None are mods, or require any kind of additional software or lubricant. Many of them are adventures and there even are some RPGs and MMORPGs.

Well, without any more rambling, let me present you with the list of these games, a.k.a. The List!

Adventures of Fatman: An excellent and well-produced adventure game, in the style of the old Lucasarts ones. Recently released as freeware.

Beneath a Steel Sky: Created by Revolution Software back in 1994 for the Amiga and the PC and based on Dave Gibbons' artistic vision, this is a perfect free download. A cult classic nonetheless.

Room War: A very small first person flyer-shooter, that (in my case at least) proved to be extremely addictive. Decent 3d graphics and a lot of Alienware-advertising textures.

Porrasturvat: Throw people off a stair. A production that is considered an absolute classic, as long as you know what scene, the demoscene is.

Grand Theft Auto: Yes, the same that spawned the GTA: San Andreas smash hit. It is offered for free, along with GTA2 and Wild Metal, by the beautiful, magnificent, generous and over-all good guys of Rockstar!

Halo Zero: HALO in 2d? Yes. HALO in 2d. Oldschool gaming with a French contemporary touch...

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The best and funniest text adventure ever created, was written by the late and much beloved Douglas Adams, and is offered in an enhanced and free version by the BBC.

The Ur-Quan Masters: This is basically the classic Star Control 2, only enhanced and with much better graphics (and deeper storyline etc). The name-change was due to legal reasons. Of course.

Dofus is a MMO. Almost a MMORPG, but more tactical, thus a MMOTRPG. Still, it looks great, plays better and it's free.

Bloom: Be a flower! Or something like that, in a beautiful and innovative game.

Dink Smallwood: The well known freeware, zelda-like RPG. Formerly a commercial game.

Hacker: Be a Hacker in a (I believe, I guess, I don't really know) rather realistic game.

Star Wraith 2: A space shooter created in Dark Basic. Rather basic, but good fun. They actually used to sell this game(!). Apparently a Star Wraith 1 must have existed too.

Apprentice: Already reviewed by me. Read the review. Then enjoy it (the game that is, not the review, which is quite enjoyable too. Anyway. You know what I mean...)

S.W.I.N.E.: I guess most people refer to it as SWINE, and believe it is a very good RTS(for a freeware at least).

Defender of the Crown: The old arcade-strategy-action classic by Cinemaware, is now being brought back to you by Cinemaware. Wow!

Eye of the Kraken: An amazing, strange and funny-at-times 3rd person adventure. It's a full blown former-commercial production.No-Action Jackson: Another adventure, only not a professional one. It is excellent though. Great cartoon graphics, good dialog, good jokes, Lucasarts style and a plot that has to do with (pen and paper) RPGs.

Anarchy Online: The well known commercial, contemporary MMORPG. Well, part of it is free. Go play with the big boys.

DOOM, the roguelike: Combine ascii graphics, Rogue dungeon-based gameplay and the Doom atmosphere and this is what you get.

76 comments:

Hmmmm, interesting list of games. I remember staying up all night playing Grand Theft Auto 2 back in the day, now after playing the PS2 Trilogy, though, I cant play it for more than thirty minutes without being hopelessly bored! Still, I might try it for nostaligia.

Thank you for your work compiling this list. It makes it easier for this senior citizen, with a fixed income, to participate.

Although I'm much older, our interests have simililarities. (Monty Python rocks!) Must be our Greek blood... my father was born in Leonidion during the late 1800's and came to the states in the early 1900's.

This listing has already posted in the Digg last week.See here the original listing with screenshots and full descriptions (not as funny as here though)http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3148013

Alien Arena 2006 should be on the list. Its an AWESOME freeware FPS based on heavily modified id source. http://red.planetarena.org for details. Tournaments are getting hot and heavy in online play, too.

I am one of those 'cheap bastards' you refer to, but only because I support my family and myself on a disability pension and just cannot afford to buy games. However, thank you for the free games and believe me, your hard work is very much appreciated!

If you want some oldschool MMORPG action, try a MUD-style game. Most if not all are free, and there's some amazing worlds to explore. It's like the neverending story, and you can be whatever you want. My fav is Realms of the Dragon, its a massive world with great PvP and some real quality compared to most games out there. Very addictive too! http://www.rod.org is their website. As far as free games go, MUD's are still the best long-term addiction.

Wow! Some real classics here. Some of them brings back memories of my wasted youth spending countless hours playing games like these.I'm gonna check out some of these over the next while and waste a few more hours. ;) Thanks for sharing!

Great list, (I'm making my own too)Starwraith is amazing!You can also try Transcendence a very good 2D space exploration, trading and combat game (Very polished game)http://neurohack.com/transcendence/